大人気パテシエのDNA.......................

Every one of us has a beginning, the start, of our career, whatever it may be, which has led us to where we are now. Here is a book featuring the some of the top pastry chefs in Japan and how they have become famous. Many of them own chains of pastry shops throughout Japan.

Interestingly enough, some of them graduated at the top colleges in Japan like Todai and Waseda. And of course, ALL of them have trained in France.

Out of all of them the most interesting story comes from one of the great patissiers in Japan, Tadashi Yanagi. His struggle and endurance in training in France had pushed him to where he is now where he owns chains of patisseries throughout Japan. His experience of racial discrimination and extreme hardships in France was so bad that it has made him come to hate France and yet, pushed him to excel in refining his skills in patisserie.

Fortunately, I have had a good experience at the start of my career which began with a three year apprenticeship at the Guam Hilton. You would see this kind of training in Europe which entails doing several months in each section of the kitchen-butchery, garde manger, saucier, hot line, fine dining, and finally pastry. My first section was the butchery. Within the first two weeks my hands were cut up so bad that one day my mom saw all of the bandages on my hands and had asked me whether I really wanted to pursue this career. At that time, the kitchen was an exciting place to be. Every section of the kitchen had a European sous chef and a chef de partie. I was working with many ex-patriot chefs who came from all over the world like France(of course), Belgium, Switzerland, Italy, Ireland, Germany, and so on, and so on.....You definitely don't see this anymore in Hotel kitchens. At the time, I was working 12-16 hours a day. I would clock in for 8 hours, clock out, and then work until 10 pm. just to learn more. This, I did for 3 years. In pastry, it was a struggle much in part because the pastry chef whom was French, did not like to give out his recipes. So, after some time, I ended up copying his recipes when he would go to lunch. Of course, everything was in French. After many translations later, I ended up being able to read French. All in all it was a toss up between garde manger and pastry, mostly in part because they have artistic qualities in both departments. In the end, I chose pastry. Since then, I have no regrets.